Post by PeterBut, if we start down this road, I would put £2000/year road tax on
4x4 vehicles except those used off road.
Define the vehicles you would put in this category ?
Define "used off-road" ? I'd be happy with such an exception as it would
include both of mine :-)
Post by PeterHuge amounts of money would
be saved. Just one slight problem: not enforceable.
I can only see it being done on engine size, and possibly on whether it's
actually 4 four wheel drive. The latter is easily fiddlable - if it's a road
only motor you just lock the centre diff, remove the front propshaft, get it
verified at the next MOT and bingo - no longer a 4x4 for tax purposes but
otherwise no difference in consumption !
And for 2 grand I can think of ways to reduce the engine capacity and still
have a usable vehicle with no discernable change in consumption. IIRC, when
the Discovery first came out, one of the engine options was a 2l 4 cyl petrol
engine - not very popular, most people went 2.5 turbo diesel or 3.5l V8
petrol. Also IIRC, the 2l didn't actually drink less, you simply used more
throttle to get the same power (up to the llimit of course where 'performance
becomes an issue'). It's not the cc's that count, it's how you use them that
makes the emmissions.
And of course, just think of the effect on second hand values - would put
some very nice motors within my financial reach :-)
So, hopefully, you will realise that whilst these proposals (2k is what the
Libs called for) are great soundbites and feed off the 'class envy' and
ignorance of the masses, in practical terms they would not have the desired
effect because they just haven't been thought through.
Don't forget that one of the things that killed off our garment manufacturing
industry was import taxation. OK, it's an over simplification, but in order
to protect the textile industry many decades ago, the government introduced
import duties on cloth - the idea being that it would make it more economical
to import the thread and weave the cloth here. Instead, it made it more
economic to manufacture complete garments abroad and so killed off that
industry as well as failing to protect the textile industry.
It's seems at times that modern government is about introducing rules and
regulations with no thought about the consequences and without thinking
things through. Regulations that make the roads more dangerous, regulations
that encourage fly-tipping, systems to make identity theft/fraud easier, and
now regulations called for to make 'pollution taxes' that are unrelated to
pollution on a class of vehicles that no-one has yet defined beyond "I know
it when I see it".
But then you miss the point entirely, owning a vehicle does not in itself
produce CO2 or other emmissions. Why should something that sits on my drive
most of the time and do very low milage be taxed more than something that has
twice the mpg figure but does as many miles in a month and said 4x4 does in a
year ?
Oh yes, and just for good measure, if you REALLY want reduced CO2 - campaign
for the elimination of cats (that's the catalytic converters, not the furry
purring ones) - they alone are responsible for significant amounts of CO2
emmissions, possibly 10-20% on many setups !
PS - this really belongs in uk.transport where yoou find some 'fine flame
wars' and trolls to argue the toss with !